MAKING CANADA BETTER: Empathy is key for P.E.I. Easter Seals ambassador when helping fellow Canadians
CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. — Vaeda Matheson has a message for her fellow college students and Canadians.
“Figuring out that I’ve incapacity doesn’t cease me from doing stuff that I can’t or can do.”
Eleven-year-old Vaeda is the 2022 Easter Seals Ambassador for P.E.I.
In reality, she was the ambassador for 2020 and 2021, too, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic stored her from main the Easter Seals’ annual faculty fundraising tour.
Ambassador Spotlight! ✨
Easter Seals Society of PEI Ambassador, Vaeda Zo Matheson, is having a busy month serving to to rejoice Easter Seals’ 100 years of offering packages and providers to Canadian households dwelling with a incapacity. 💯 pic.twitter.com/WMy301GaBF
— Easter Seals Canada (@EasterSeals) June 23, 2022
Whereas the delays made her so unhappy she virtually gave up, Vaeda is not any stranger to challenges.
She lives with cerebral palsy and has spent years in bodily remedy to discover ways to navigate her physique and the world.
With that have, Vaeda has empathy for everybody she meets. In her phrases, she has a “large coronary heart.”
“I’ve at all times helped individuals in the event that they wanted it and the explanation why is as a result of … since I’ve a giant coronary heart, for the smallest factor I’d simply really feel dangerous.”
Kelly Mullaly, government director of Easter Seals P.E.I., says Vaeda’s persona and take care of others are infectious.
“The perfect half was seeing numerous these children be impressed and smiling and it simply made my day.”
– Vaeda Matheson, P.E.I. Easter Seals ambassador
Mullaly wasn’t with the group when Easter Seal chosen Vaeda, however Mullaly acquired to witness Vaeda’s impression on faculty audiences throughout P.E.I. in the course of the tour.
“This yr was the second-best yr ever (for fundraising),” Mullaly mentioned. “It was improbable – the quantity of power and enthusiasm there was for the college tour.”
It raised over $45,000 at 59 faculties in simply six days, she mentioned.
“I felt just like the world’s oldest roadie for a rock band, simply being on the bus along with her.”
The biggest single donation, over $6,000, got here from West Kent Elementary College, the place Vaeda simply completed Grade 5.
“The perfect half was seeing numerous these children be impressed and smiling and it simply made my day,” she mentioned.
Logan MacLean is a reporter with SaltWire Community
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